Analog Integrated Circuits for Massively Parallel Wireless Transceivers

对无线通信日益增长的需求使得频谱成为一种稀缺商品。预计到2019年，加拿大的移动数据流量将比2014年增长7倍。作为回应，加拿大工业部正试图为商业提供商提供约600 MHz和3500 MHz的新频谱，但这将需要投入大量资金调试和部署新设备。与此同时，我们对未经许可频谱的使用(例如，大约2.4 GHz和5.6 GHz)比许可频谱的使用增长得更快，因此出现了巨大的拥塞。*缓解这些频谱限制的技术现在为通信理论家所知，但它们必须进行调整，以便在廉价的集成电路(IC)中实现。具体地说，大规模MIMO是一种无线技术，它依赖于每个固定终端(即中央路由器或基站)上数百甚至数千个天线。所有天线同时使用相同的频率向数百个用户发送和接收信号，从而允许大量重复使用频谱。理论上，在不增加频谱或辐射功率限制的情况下，通信带宽可以实现数量级的增长。*大规模MIMO的巨大潜力使其成为全球无线技术路线图的关键部分，但要使其实用化，还需要在模拟-数字混合集成电路设计方面进行创新。大规模MIMO被视为满足未来几十年无线带宽需求的必要工具，并隐含在加拿大的无线监管政策中。然而，这些路线图和假设已经受到质疑，因为大规模MIMO的直接实施所需的模拟/混合信号IC信号处理是不切实际的。这项计划寻求模拟集成信号处理技术来补充现有的通信技术，并实现实用且廉价的大规模MIMO通信。*从事该项目的研究生将在UofT实验室进行系统级通信链路建模和仿真，以及集成电路设计和表征。致力于在这些市场建立或保持立足点的加拿大公司对他们的经验和培训需求很高。因此，拟议的研究计划将通过其总部基地的技术领先地位，并通过加快下一代廉价无线宽带的广泛使用，使加拿大受益。

Increasing demand for wireless communication has made spectrum a scarce commodity. Mobile data traffic in Canada is slated to increase 7-fold over 2014 levels by 2019. In response, Industry Canada is trying to make new spectrum available around 600MHz and 3500MHz for commercial providers, but this will require commissioning and deploying new equipment at great expense. At the same time, our use of unlicensed spectrum (around the 2.4 GHz and 5 6 GHz, for example) is growing even faster than that of the licensed spectrum, and therefore seeing tremendous congestion.******Technologies to alleviate these spectral constraints are now known to communication theorists, but they must be adapted to permit their implementation in inexpensive integrated circuits (ICs). Specifically, “Massive MIMO” is a wireless technology that relies upon hundreds or even thousands of antennas at each fixed terminal (i.e. central router or base-station). All antennas transmit and receive signals in concert to hundreds of users simultaneously using the same frequencies, thereby permitting tremendous reuse of the spectrum. Orders-of-magnitude increases in communication bandwidth are theoretically achievable without increasing spectrum or radiated-power limits. ******The tremendous potential of Massive MIMO has made it a key part of wireless technology roadmaps worldwide, but innovation on mixed analog-digital integrated circuit design is needed to make it practical. Massive MIMO is seen as a necessary tool for meeting wireless bandwidth demands in the coming decades, and is implicit in Canada's wireless regulatory policies. However, these roadmaps and assumptions are already being questioned because the analog/mixed-signal IC signal processing required for a straightforward implementation of Massive MIMO is impractical. This proposal seeks analog integrated signal processing technologies to complement existing communication technologies and enable practical and inexpensive Massive MIMO communication.******Graduate students engaged in the program will undertake system-level modeling and simulation of communication links, as well as integrated circuit design and characterization in UofT labs. Their experience and training is in high demand from Canadian companies working to establish or maintain their foothold in these markets. Hence, the proposed research program will benefit Canada via the technological leadership of its HQP, and by accelerating the wide availability of next-generation inexpensive wireless broadband.